Introduction

With Intel's launch of the P55 chipset based Core i7 and i5 processors, we knew it would not be long until we saw a slew of motherboards with the P55 chip. Today is the first full review of one of such board from MSI! Our first example is the P55-GD65, which is priced right smack in the middle of P55 motherboards. That should give you an early indication as to where this board stacks up as far as features and performance are concerned. In actuality, this motherboard has an incredible number of features, which we will touch on shortly.

The first thing that strikes you about the board is the black PCB with blue and silver accents. I really like this color scheme and the heat sink design; it's not too over the top but enough to keep it from being dull or boring.

Let's take a look at some of the specifications before we get into board layout and impressions.